Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Long time readers of this blog will know of my detestation of dubbing, which is ubiquitous in Spain. To tell the truth, I've only ever experienced it on the TV as I've never been able to countenance the thought of sitting through a dubbed film at the cinema. Here's an interesting article which rehearses the origins of dubbing and outlines its positives but ends, I'm pleased to say, with the unequivocal statement that "The time has come for contemporary Spanish governments to take the bull by the horns. Just as Franco’s legislation of 70 years ago put the country in a linguistic quagmire, new legislation must now help to put the country on a cultural and linguist par with other European nations." Or, more succinctly, "This ghost of a fascist past must be put to rest". Hear, hear! Bring on the subtitles!

And talking of modernisation, the new right-of-centre Spanish government has announced its intention to allow notaries to both marry and divorce people. Provided they're in agreement in the latter case. Which can be safely assumed in the former, I suppose. It says that the aim is to avoid costly and lengthy legal processes and to alleviate the heavy workload of judges. Which are admirable objectives, of course, but the cynic in me wonders whether this should really be a priority for the government right now. And whether it isn't a great way to compensate notaries for the loss of the fortunes they were making by recording all property transfers during the boom years.

Talking of judges . . . in particular Spain's internationally-known Baltasar Garzón, here's a Spanish take on his current ordeal of three separate - but virtually simultaneous - trials. Like the author, I have difficulty liking Garzón but believe that what he's being subjected to is deeply questionable. On a point of detail, Garzón's lawyers today called as witnesses people who'd lost relatives to the fascist repression. Which is just the sort of testimony the right-wing organisations who initiated the trials wanted to avoid. It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

Finally . . . I've been asked about takings kids on the camino. Does anyone have any experience of this they'd like to share, preferably positive? If so, my email is:- colindavies@terra.es

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